Cleaning Matters! Lessons Learned from Comparing Response Behaviors and Willingness to Pay in Probability- and Non-Probability Samples

Amila Hadziomerspahic, Sonja H. Kolstoe and Steven J. Dundas

No 388974, National Center for Environmental Economics-NCEE Working Papers from United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Abstract: Nonmarket valuation surveys are designed to ask the who, what, when, where and why for a population of interest to understand preferences for environmental goods. Recent declines in survey response rates and high costs associated with traditional survey modes (e.g., mail), along with recent advances in online sampling have led to increased use of non probability sample frames. This raises an important question for stated preference surveys about potential differences in willingness to pay (WTP) based on data collected by probability versus nonprobability samples. We develop a layered, sequential approach to test whether data processing and adjustments to estimation strategies can lead to similar welfare distributions for nonmarket attributes. Using a survey on the protection of safe recreation hours at ocean beaches, we find that our proposed process decreases the variance of marginal WTP for the non-probability sample and produces WTP distributions that overlap with the probability sample for our key attribute of interest.

Keywords: Environmental Economics and Policy; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 82
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:nceewp:388974

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.388974

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